Mt. Whitney Training | Mammoth Lakes Trip

With all of our “official” Mt. Whitney training hikes complete and with Mt. Whitney right around the corner, we headed to Mammoth Lakes for the weekend with friends to do some hiking and to help get us adjusted to the high elevation before doing our Mt. Whitney hike.

I loooove Mammoth during the summer. It was our first time driving up from San Diego (all the other times we visited Mammoth we were flying in from the East coast) and we decided to bring the pup with us. We left early on a Friday morning and arrived a bit before lunch time. After stopping at a deli in town (Old New York Deli & Bakery Co. - so good) to get lunch, we headed to Horseshoe lake to eat outside with our friends. After eating we decided to do the short hike from Horseshoe lake to McLeod lake. The hike wasn’t too crowded and the lake was so pretty! There weren’t a ton of people around, so we got to enjoy being at the lake practically by ourselves. The dogs got to “swim” (both of them are not much of water dogs and the only way to get our dog in a lake is to throw a stick in for her, and even then she’s hesitant) in the lake and we did the short hike around the lake to soak up the views from every angle. It was so gorgeous! The water color was amazing.

After our hike we stopped to check-in to our Airbnb, and then headed to my Aunt and Uncle’s for pizza on the porch.

On Saturday, we were up early to do part of the hike that we had hoped to backpack in 2020, only to have it canceled due to fires. We were so bummed but the plan this time around was to at least hike to one of the main lakes that we would have hit on our backpacking trip! And one day, we’ll do the full loop! The hike we were planning on backpacking was a loop in the Ansel Adams Wilderness that would have us camping one night at Ediza Lake and the second night at Thousand Island Lake. For our day hike, we decided to do an out and back from Agnew Meadows to Ediza Lake. My Garmin died on me after 10.75 miles, but I think we had about 2 miles left, so it was around a 13 mile hike. It was a good mix of ups and downs with only about a total ascent of 1,338 which felt like a piece of cake after all of the Whitney training we’d been doing. ;) This hike was sooo gorgeous! There were 3 hikes total on the hike - Olaine Lake (a little guy compared to the others), Shadow Lake, and our destination, Ediza Lake. All were so pretty in their own way, but Ediza was definitely my favorite. I can’t imagine how amazing it would be to camp here and wake up to the incredible views! Most of the trail also followed along streams and had some crossings as well, including one where we had no choice but to get wet. I will say, the only downfall about this hike at the time of year that we went (mid-June) is that there were a ton of mosquitos! Luckily they don’t bite me, but my husband and our friend were definitely eaten up, and they were just annoying! Definitely a hike to do again in the fall.

The next day was more low key, we went to Mary Lake and spent the day paddle boarding and hanging out at the lake with the pups. It was more windy than when I’ve been on this lake in the past, but it’s such a fun lake to paddle on. It was a great way to relax after a longer hike the day before.

Our original plan for Monday was to drive to Lone Pine and do some hikes in the area to loosen up the legs and soak in some pretty views before doing our Mt. Whitney hike early on Tuesday. Monday was also my husbands birthday, so we were ready to do some celebrating too! However there were storms in the Lone Pine right before the weekend, and some lightening strikes caused fires in the area. One of those fires wasn’t noticed until Sunday and it was very close to the Whitney trailhead (specifically Whitney Portal I believe), which ultimately ended up canceling our reservation to do a day hike to Mt. Whitney on Tuesday. We were sooo bummed. We had been training for this for a while and were mentally and physically prepared, so it was definitely a disappointment to not be able to do the hike, especially with how competitive it is to get a permit. Luckily we were still in Mammoth and in a gorgeous area, so it was easy enough to find a backup plan that we could get excited about.

Our friends were driving back to San Diego that morning, but before they hit the road we went to them to check out Convict Lake. It was so pretty! I hadn’t spent any time here before and would definitely be down to go back and walk the loop around the lake.

Since my Aunt and Uncle live in Mammoth, we decided to stay with them Monday and Tuesday night and head back to our house on Wednesday as originally planned. That Monday afternoon after our friends left, we went on a hike with my Uncle to Hammil Lake, a little lake above Emerald Lake that doesn’t have any official trails to it. It was a fun lake to navigate us to and I loved being away from a lot of people!

For our Tuesday hike, to replace Mt. Whitney we wanted something epic! And although the hike we did wasn’t exactly the same level as Whitney, it was still an amazing hike with some of the prettiest views I’ve seen. My Uncle told us about a trail beginning at South Lake and it did not disappoint. We hiked from South Lake to Bishop Pass, and then went back the way we came except for going off on a side loop around Chocolate Peak to see even more lakes. The hike ended up being somewhere around 13 miles, with 2,538ft of elevation gain. In total, we saw 7+ lakes on this hike! It was such a gorgeous hike as I’m a sucker for a beautiful mountain lake! We also got in some climbing at elevation as we hiked up to Bishop Pass and the terrain became very rocky. We should have continued on past Bishop Pass for just a bit, and we would have been met with gorgeous views from the other side, into what I believe was Sequoia National Park, but we didn’t venture past it and instead just headed back the way we came. Maybe next time! There’s just so much to explore and hardly enough time! The other great thing about this hike was that we hardly saw anyone. It seems more rare these days to be on a hike and feel like you have it to yourself, so we definitely enjoyed that. Jon took full advantage of that + the glistening mountain lakes, and went for a dip! It did not last long at all - he was freezing and very quickly hopped out. Props to him for doing it though, I was not about to go for a freezing cold dip! Overall I loved this hike and would do it again in a heartbeat! It was the perfect day for us and the scenery was incredible. I can’t get enough of the Sierras!

While it was a disappointment to not be able to hike Mt. Whitney like we planned, we still had the best long weekend in Mammoth and got in some amazing hikes! Maybe one day we’ll get lucky enough to have a Mt. Whitney permit again…